That is right, enemy morale is low and in the verge of collapse…RUSH TO B!!!!!
[X]Keep Pushing: You are going to push deeper into the city's defenses, demoralize the enemy and kill them all. (Considered High Risk, very high risk of injury, but will cause enemy morale to suffer dramatically. Most likely will make them break and flee the battlefield.)
[X]Keep Pushing: You are going to push deeper into the city's defenses, demoralize the enemy and kill them all. (Considered High Risk, very high risk of injury, but will cause enemy morale to suffer dramatically. Most likely will make them break and flee the battlefield.)
Holy fucking shit, this is GLORIOUS! ROMA INVICTA!!!
[X]Enemies at the Gate: You will get to the gatehouse and lock the enemy army out. If they cannot escape, they will surrender. (Considered High Risk, Low risk of injury. May cause enemy to fight to the death, if they do not break, knowing they have no escape.)
As tempting as it is to keep pushing, I'm more in favor of this Option. That way, we coordinate with the rest of our forces and can take their whole army down in one fell swoop.
[X]Enemies at the Gate: You will get to the gatehouse and lock the enemy army out. If they cannot escape, they will surrender. (Considered High Risk, Low risk of injury. May cause enemy to fight to the death, if they do not break, knowing they have no escape.)
[X]Enemies at the Gate: You will get to the gatehouse and lock the enemy army out. If they cannot escape, they will surrender. (Considered High Risk, Low risk of injury. May cause enemy to fight to the death, if they do not break, knowing they have no escape.)
[X]Enemies at the Gate: You will get to the gatehouse and lock the enemy army out. If they cannot escape, they will surrender. (Considered High Risk, Low risk of injury. May cause enemy to fight to the death, if they do not break, knowing they have no escape.)
Among the milling mass of volunteers that made up the forlorn hope, five legionaries stood slightly apart. Even after weeks of campaigning, muck and salt spray, their mail gleamed fresh oil and polish, and their blades newly sharpened for action. Severianus stood foremost among these soldiers, spine straight and full of confidence in spite of his youth. To his right stood the tallest man of the legion. A man of great strength and few words, Petros was a sturdy and stalwart fellow, who lived up to his namesake as the rock that anchored the battle line. Next to him was another remarkable figure, a hot-blooded half-Thracian whose ferocity was tempered by the iron discipline of the centurions of the legion. None could pronounce his name without butchering it, so they named him by his peculiar laugh. To the left of Severianus was the shortest of the group, a former Argive street rat who went by Sminthus. As much as he was a clever and nimble pickpocket and sneakthief, he was also a silver-tongued fast-talker, blessed by Apollo and Mercury alike. Rounding out the group was a former shepherd named Kyros. His father had been a mercenary from Rhodes who had eventually settled down, turning his talent with a sling from war to herding sheep. Kyros had picked up the talent, and could hit a man-sized target at two hundred paces.
"So, Petros, you think you could jump that wall yourself? Looks to be fairly tall, but I reckon I could grab the top and pull myself over."
"Dunno, boss. I could reach, but between my kit and my weight, I might need some help."
"Ey, Petros, it might be better for you to help give the other legionaries a leg up over the wall. Once we've got enough men over it, we can get a couple to help pull you up."
"Good idea, Sminthus! According to pops, the hardest part of taking a fort is getting a foothold inside the defenses. Getting up and over walls is slow and tiring work, and if it takes too long, the first few over the top will get dogpiled by the defenders. That's why it's always the best and the bravest that are asked to make the first breach."
"Aye, better you trust in your best men to scale the wall, rather than build a ramp out of corpses. Is wasteful, is what that is, kekekeke."
"Keksimus, that's rather morbid of you, but not untrue. You could have worded it better, though."
"Keh, Sminthus, half the time you open your mouth, flowers come out."
"Better than telling someone that you'll wear his entrails like a toga, man!"
"Ease off, Sminty, you know how Keks gets. I'm pretty sure he's riling you up on purpose at this point."
"Fine, fine Severianus. Best not to feed him. Far-sighted Kyros, what do your Rhodian eyes see?"
"Real funny, Sminty. A name pun, and some sort of theater reference a pastoral shepherd like me wouldn't get. Har har."
"Nah, bro, do it like Keks does. Kek kek."
"By the gods, even Petros is making fun of me! I guess I won't tell you what those archers are doing up there."
"Wait! Kyros, I'm sorry we laughed at you. Tell us what they're doing."
"Haah, fine Sev. Those archers... they're just standing there... menacingly."
"That's it?"
"That's it. What do you expect? We're outside of bow range, they won't waste arrows when they know they have no chance of hitting us."
"I see. Fair enough, Kyros. I suppose we'll be using the testudo to cross that open ground before we try scaling the walls."
"Makes sense. I might be able to hit a hand or foot, but for most, they'd need their arrow guided by Apollo himself to get through the testudo."
"Kyros, bro, Keks might try to say the most cursed stuff, but you say the scariest things without even trying."
"Hey! I'm no tryhard! I'm the scariest gods-damned warrior in the legion!"
"How many times did the tribune make you eat dirt again?"
"Hey, she's just built different! I had enough after two thrashings, Not like Sev, the masochist!"
"Ahem! I'm not a masochist, but I do enjoy a challenge. The tribune was the first person who wasn't my pops who could beat me in a spar, and he's built different for sure!"
"Aye, ain't nobody want to fight the primus pilus, not even Petros can hold out."
"No offense boss, but your pa is a monster."
"I know, isn't it great? I've learned so many things from his training!"
"My apologies, Keksimus, it seems you were right after all. Severianus is indeed a masochist."
"Hey!"
"By the way, Sev, I noticed you never refer to the tribune as she or her, only ever as The Tribune. Why?"
"I'm well aware that the tribune is a woman, you just have to look at- I'm sure you're looking, I don't have to tell you to look, but look!"
"Yeah Sev. I can see where you're coming from. I-"
"Hush! Looks like the tribune is about to say something!"
"And he's hanging onto her every word. What a sim-"
"I'm not smitten, she's just very, very impressive!"
I've been meaning to write this for a few days, but I've been busy with work. The idea came to me in the pre-speech update where @Magoose mentioned a group of five, which made me think of the Five Man Band trope. Severianus is the leader, Petros is the brawn, Sminthus is the brains, Keksimus and Kyros are two different flavors of lancer. All the better for snarkbanter dialogue.
Petros is the big strong guy, the rock of the team. His name literally means rock (or The Rock, if you want to read it that way). Keksimus is the hot-blooded shonen rival with an unpronounceable name that gets a funny nickname for the memes. Kyros means far-sighted, and he is the butt of LoTR Legolas references. Rhodian slingers were famous mercenaries of the Hellenistic period (the title of most famous mercenary slingers goes to the Balearic slingers). Sminthus is actually the most layered joke/reference/meme. He's a street rat from Argos named Sminthus (mouse). He's also a silver-tongued fast-talker and the brains of the group. Normally, a street rat thief build would have Mercury/Hermes as a patron god (god of thieves and travelers), but he's a charisma build which means Apollo. But wait, there's more! Apollo has an aspect whose sacred animal is the mouse, Apollo Smintheus (Apollo, Lord of Mice), worshipped in several towns in Asia Minor. Lastly, the Argos connection. Argos minted coins stamped with the image of a mouse. I am inordinately proud of that layered reference for the sake of a joke.
Memes abound. I might have used too many. Or is there no such thing?
The last bit where Severianus is practically simping for Claudia is taken almost word-for-word from here:
Also, while it looks like Severianus was being called a simp, it was totally meant to be simpleton, but interrupted. Not saying simp, because that is anachronistic and out of character, but not for bros ragging on their bros about a girl they are down bad for.
[X]Enemies at the Gate: You will get to the gatehouse and lock the enemy army out. If they cannot escape, they will surrender. (Considered High Risk, Low risk of injury. May cause enemy to fight to the death, if they do not break, knowing they have no escape.)
[X]Keep Pushing: You are going to push deeper into the city's defenses, demoralize the enemy and kill them all. (Considered High Risk, very high risk of injury, but will cause enemy morale to suffer dramatically. Most likely will make them break and flee the battlefield.)
The other one is quite risky, Sun Tzu in the Art of War advises against cutting all paths to retreat from the enemy or thy may end up fighting to the end...
[X]Keep Pushing: You are going to push deeper into the city's defenses, demoralize the enemy and kill them all. (Considered High Risk, very high risk of injury, but will cause enemy morale to suffer dramatically. Most likely will make them break and flee the battlefield.)
The gate is tempting, but I would rather not risk the enemy fighting to the death.
[X]Enemies at the Gate: You will get to the gatehouse and lock the enemy army out. If they cannot escape, they will surrender. (Considered High Risk, Low risk of injury. May cause enemy to fight to the death, if they do not break, knowing they have no escape.)
[X]Keep Pushing: You are going to push deeper into the city's defenses, demoralize the enemy and kill them all. (Considered High Risk, very high risk of injury, but will cause enemy morale to suffer dramatically. Most likely will make them break and flee the battlefield.)
Being the Forlorn hope and the Sappers of any army prior to the invention of the Armored Vehicle, and grenades... well lets just say if they all didn't die, they would be promoted, and given all sorts of stuff.
As tempting as it is to keep pushing, I'm more in favor of this Option. That way, we coordinate with the rest of our forces and can take their whole army down in one fell swoop.
I will go out on a leg here and say its probably not great.
[X]Enemies at the Gate: You will get to the gatehouse and lock the enemy army out. If they cannot escape, they will surrender. (Considered High Risk, Low risk of injury. May cause enemy to fight to the death, if they do not break, knowing they have no escape.)
[X]Enemies at the Gate: You will get to the gatehouse and lock the enemy army out. If they cannot escape, they will surrender. (Considered High Risk, Low risk of injury. May cause enemy to fight to the death, if they do not break, knowing they have no escape.)
The author pointed out something to me and now i remember that the cool factor doesn't lead to good tactical decisions when half asleep at 3 AM, so i changed my vote.
Victory is at hand and Mars is watching over us. Let's show these greek dogs that they are not our equals in battle but children playing with sticks and stones.
[x] Keep Pushing: You are going to push deeper into the city's defenses, demoralize the enemy and kill them all. (Considered High Risk, very high risk of injury, but will cause enemy morale to suffer dramatically. Most likely will make them break and flee the battlefield.)
Considering our rolls so far, I'm tempted to say Fortuna favors the bold and keep pushing and let the calvary run down anybody who leaves. On the other hand, controlling the gates lets our army get into the fort real quick instead of having to climb the walls. If we had better intelligence on the enemies morale this would be easier, though I would probably choose to keep pushing if the enemies morale is low, because then they'll do anything to get away from the whirlwind of death that is us, even if it means running out of the city.
[X]Enemies at the Gate: You will get to the gatehouse and lock the enemy army out. If they cannot escape, they will surrender. (Considered High Risk, Low risk of injury. May cause enemy to fight to the death, if they do not break, knowing they have no escape.)